‘Bond 25’ Director Shortlist Adds Two More Names to the Mix

Could the James Bond series finally hire a woman to direct? That’s the latest word from behind the scenes of Bond 25, as producers MGM and Eon have reportedly added two more names to the shortlist of directors that could possibly replace Danny Boyle. One of those names is said to be S.J. Clarkson, the longtime TV director who’s worked on everything from Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Defenders series to recent HBO fave Succession.

Per Variety, longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are now eyeing Clarkson and Bart Layton to potentially replace Boyle, who recently exited Bond 25 over creative differences. If hired, Clarkson would become the first woman to direct a James Bond movie in the franchise’s 50-plus-year history. It also wouldn’t be the only long-running movie franchise to hire Clarkson as their first female director; she’s also set to direct Star Trek 4 for Paramount.

Layton is also an interesting choice: He followed up his breakout hit documentary The Impostor with the recent American Animals — a film that blends documentary and narrative formats to tell a thrilling true-life heist tale, similar to Errol Morris’ approach in the Netflix limited series Wormwood.

As previously reported, Yann Demange is also on the shortlist, and Broccoli and Wilson are said to be scheduling a private screening of his upcoming film White Boy Rick (starring Matthew McConaughey) to get a sense of the director’s potential.

Bond 25 will likely miss its original November 2019 release date. By the time it hits theaters, it will have been a full five years since Spectre. In the meantime, the delay has given Daniel Craig an opening in his schedule, which allowed him to sign on for Rian Johnson’s Knives Out — a closed door murder mystery inspired by Agatha Christie novels, which Johnson will film before he gets to work on the new Star Wars trilogy.